Guy Carleton, 1724-1759

Guy Carleton, first Baron Dorchester, was born at
Strabane, County Tyrone, on the 3rd of September 1724, the
anniversary of Cromwell's two great victories and death. He came of
a very old family of English country gentlemen which had migrated to
Ireland in the seventeenth century and intermarried with other
Anglo-Irish families equally devoted to the service of the British
Crown. Guy's father was Christopher Carleton of Newry in County
Down. His mother was Catherine Ball of County Donegal. His father
died comparatively young; and, when he was himself fifteen, his
mother married the rector of Newry, the Reverend Thomas Skelton,
whose influence over the six step-children of the household worked
wholly for their good.

At eighteen Guy received his first commission as ensign in the 25th
Foot, then known as Lord Rothes' regiment and now as the King's Own
Scottish Borderers. At twenty-three he fought gallantly at the siege
of Bergen-op-Zoom. Four years later (1751) he was a lieutenant in
the Grenadier Guards. He was one of those quiet men whose sterling
value is appreciated only by the few till some crisis makes it stand
forth before the world at large. Pitt, Wolfe, and George II all
recognized his solid virtues. At thirty he was still some way down
the list of lieutenants in the Grenadiers, while Wolfe, two years
his junior in age, had been four years in command of a battalion
with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. Yet he had long been 'my friend
Carleton' to Wolfe, he was soon to become one of 'Pitt's Young Men,'
and he was enough of a 'coming man' to incur the king's displeasure.
He had criticized the Hanoverians; and the king never forgave him.
The third George 'gloried in the name of Englishman.' But the first
two were Hanoverian all through. And for an English guardsman to
disparage the Hanoverian army was considered next door to
lese-majeste.

Lady Dorchester burnt all her husband's private papers after his
death in 1808; so we have lost some of the most intimate records
concerning him. But 'grave Carleton' appears so frequently in the
letters of his friend Wolfe that we can see his character as a young
man in almost any aspect short of self-revelation. The first
reference has nothing to do with affairs of state. In 1747 Wolfe,
aged twenty, writing to Miss Lacey, an English girl in Brussels, and
signing himself 'most sincerely your friend and admirer,' says: 'I
was doing the greatest injustice to the dear girls to admit the
least doubt of their constancy. Perhaps with respect to ourselves
there may be cause of complaint. Carleton, I'm afraid, is a recent
example of it.' From this we may infer that Carleton was less
'grave' as a young man than Wolfe found him later on. Six years
afterwards Wolfe strongly recommended him for a position which he
had himself been asked to fill, that of military tutor to the young
Duke of Richmond, who was to get a company in Wolfe's own regiment.
Writing home from Paris in 1753 Wolfe tells his mother that the duke
'wants some skilful man to travel with him through the Low Countries
and into Lorraine. I have proposed my friend Carleton, whom Lord
Albemarle approves of.' Lord Albemarle was the British ambassador to
France; so Carleton got the post and travelled under the happiest
auspices, while learning the frontier on which the Belgian, French,
and British allies were to fight the Germans in the Great World War
of 1914. It was during this military tour of fortified places that
Carleton acquired the engineering skill which a few years later
proved of such service to the British cause in Canada.

In 1754 George Washington, at that time a young Virginian officer of
only twenty-two, fired the first shot in what presently became the
world-wide Seven Years' War. The immediate result was disastrous to
the British arms; and Washington had to give up the command of the
Ohio by surrendering Fort Necessity to the French on--of all
dates--the 4th of July! In 1755 came Braddock's defeat. In 1756
Montcalm arrived in Canada and won his first victory at Oswego. In
1757 Wolfe distinguished himself by formulating the plan which, if
properly executed, would have prevented the British fiasco at
Rochefort on the coast of France. But Carleton remained as
undistinguished as before. He simply became lieutenant-colonel
commanding the 72nd Foot, now the Seaforth Highlanders. In 1758 his
chance appeared to have come at last. Amherst had asked for his
services at Louisbourg. But the king had neither forgotten nor
forgiven the remarks about the Hanoverians, and so refused
point-blank, to Wolfe's 'very great grief and disappointment... It
is a public loss Carleton's not going.' Wolfe's confidence in
Carleton, either as a friend or as an officer, was stronger than
ever. Writing to George Warde, afterwards the famous cavalry leader,
he said: 'Accidents may happen in the family that may throw my
little affairs into disorder. Carleton is so good as to say he will
give what help is in his power. May I ask the same favor of you, my
oldest friend?' Writing to Lord George Sackville, of whom we shall
hear more than enough at the crisis of Carleton's career Wolfe said:
'Amherst will tell you his opinion of Carleton, by which you will
probably be better convinced of our loss.' Again, 'We want grave
Carleton for every purpose of the war.' And yet again, after the
fall of Louisbourg: 'If His Majesty had thought proper to let
Carleton come with us as engineer it would have cut the matter much
shorter and we might now be ruining the walls of Quebec and
completing the conquest of New France.' A little later on Wolfe
blazes out with indignation over Carleton's supersession by a
junior. 'Can Sir John Ligonier (the commander-in-chief) allow His
Majesty to remain unacquainted with the merit of that officer, and
can he see such a mark of displeasure without endeavoring to soften
or clear the matter up a little? A man of honor has the right to
expect the protection of his Colonel and of the Commander of the
troops, and he can't serve without it. If I was in Carleton's place
I wouldn't stay an hour in the Army after being aimed at and
distinguished in so remarkable a manner.' But Carleton bided his
time.

At the beginning of 1759 Wolfe was appointed to command the army
destined to besiege Quebec. He immediately submitted Carleton's name
for appointment as quartermaster-general. Pitt and Ligonier heartily
approved. But the king again refused. Ligonier went back a second
time to no purpose. Pitt then sent him in for the third time,
saying, in a tone meant for the king to overhear: 'Tell His Majesty
that in order to render the General [Wolfe] completely responsible
for his conduct he should be made, as far as possible, inexcusable
if he should fail; and that whatever an officer entrusted with such
a service of confidence requests ought therefore to be granted.' The
king then consented. Thus began Carleton's long, devoted, and
successful service for Canada, the Empire, and the Crown.

Early in this memorable Empire Year of 1759 he sailed with Wolfe and
Saunders from Spithead. On the 30th of April the fleet rendezvoused
at Halifax, where Admiral Durell, second-in-command to Saunders, had
spent the winter with a squadron intended to block the St Lawrence
directly navigation opened in the spring. Durell was a good
commonplace officer, but very slow. He had lost many hands from
sickness during a particularly cold season, and he was not
enterprising enough to start cruising round Cabot Strait before the
month of May. Saunders, greatly annoyed by this delay, sent him off
with eight men-of-war on the 5th of May. Wolfe gave him seven
hundred soldiers under Carleton. These forces were sufficient to
turn back, capture, or destroy the twenty-three French merchantmen
which were then bound for Quebec with supplies and soldiers as
reinforcements for Montcalm. But the French ships were a week ahead
of Durell; and, when he landed Carleton at Isle-aux-Coudres on the
28th of May, the last of the enemy's transports had already
discharged her cargo at Quebec, sixty miles above.

Isle-aux-Coudres, so named by Jacques Cartier in 1535, was a point
of great strategic importance; for it commanded the only channel
then used. It was the place Wolfe had chosen for his winter
quarters, that is, in case of failure before Quebec and supposing he
was not recalled. None but a particularly good officer would have
been appointed as its first commandant. Carleton spent many busy
days here preparing an advanced base for the coming siege, while the
subsequently famous Captain Cook was equally busy 'a-sounding of the
channel of the Traverse' which the fleet would have to pass on its
way to Quebec. Some of Durell's ships destroyed the French
'long-shore batteries near this Traverse, at the lower end of the
island of Orleans, while the rest kept ceaseless watch to seaward,
anxiously scanning the offing, day after day, to make out the colors
of the first fleet up. No one knew what the French West India fleet
would do; and there was a very disconcerting chance that it might
run north and slip into the St Lawrence, ahead of Saunders, in the
same way as the French reinforcements had just slipped in ahead of
Durell. Presently, at the first streak of dawn on the 23rd of June,
a strong squadron was seen advancing rapidly under a press of sail.
Instantly the officers of the watch called all hands up from below.
The boatswains' whistles shrilled across the water as the seamen ran
to quarters and cleared the decks for action. Carleton's camp was
equally astir. The guards turned out. The bugles sounded. The men
fell in and waited. Then the flag-ship signaled ashore that the
strangers had just answered correctly in private code that all was
well and that Wolfe and Saunders were aboard.

Next to Wolfe himself Carleton was the busiest man in the army
throughout the siege of Quebec. In addition to his arduous and very
responsible duties as quartermaster-general, he acted as inspector
of engineers and as a special-service officer for work of an
exceptionally confidential nature. As quartermaster-general he
superintended the supply and transport branches. Considering that
the army was operating in a devastated hostile country, a thousand
miles away from its bases at Halifax and Louisbourg, and that the
interaction of the different services--naval and military, Imperial
and Colonial--required adjustment to a nicety at every turn, it was
wonderful that so much was done so well with means which were far
from being adequate. War prices of course ruled in the British camp.
But they compared very favorably with the famine prices in Quebec,
where most 'luxuries' soon became unobtainable at any price. There
were no canteen or camp-follower scandals under Carleton. Then, as
now, every soldier had a regulation ration of food and a regulation
allowance for his service kit. But 'extras' were always acceptable.
The price-list of these 'extras' reads strangely to modern ears.
But, under the circumstances, it was not exorbitant, and it was
slightly tempered by being reckoned in Halifax currency of four
dollars to the pound instead of five. The British Tommy Atkins of
that and many a later day thought Canada a wonderful country for
making money go a long way when he could buy a pot of beer for
twopence and get back thirteen pence Halifax currency as change for
his English shilling. Beef and ham ran from nine pence to a shilling
a pound. Mutton was a little dearer. Salt butter was eight pence to
one-and-three pence. Cheese was ten pence; potatoes from five to ten
shillings a bushel. 'A reasonable loaf of good soft Bread' cost
sixpence. Soap was a shilling a pound. Tea was prohibitive for all
but the officers. 'Plain Green Tea and very Badd' was fifteen
shillings, 'Couchon' twenty shillings, 'Hyson' thirty. Leaf tobacco
was ten pence a pound, roll one-and-ten pence, snuff two-and-three
pence. Sugar was a shilling to eighteen pence. Lemons were sixpence
apiece. The non-intoxicating 'Bad Sproos Beer' was only twopence a
quart and helped to keep off scurvy. Real beer, like wine and
spirits, was more expensive. 'Bristol Beer' was eighteen shillings a
dozen, 'Bad malt Drink from Hellifax' nine pence a quart. Rum and
claret were eight shillings a gallon each, port and Madeira ten and
twelve respectively. The term 'Bad' did not then mean noxious, but
only inferior. It stood against every low-grade article in the
price-list. No goods were over-classified while Carleton was
quartermaster-general.

The engineers were under-staffed, under-manned, and overworked.
There were no Royal Engineers as a permanent and comprehensive corps
till the time of Wellington. Wolfe complained bitterly and often of
the lack of men and materials for scientific siege work. But he
'relied on Carleton' to good purpose in this respect as well as in
many others. In his celebrated dispatch to Pitt he mentions Carleton
twice. It was Carleton whom he sent to seize the west end of the
island of Orleans, so as to command the basin of Quebec, and
Carleton whom he sent to take prisoners and gather information at
Pointe-aux-Trembles, twenty miles above the city. Whether or not he
revealed the whole of his final plan to Carleton is probably more
than we shall ever know, since Carleton's papers were destroyed. But
we do know that he did not reveal it to any one else, not even to
his three brigadiers, Monckton, Townshend, and Murray.

Carleton was wounded in the head during the Battle of the Plains;
but soon returned to duty. Wolfe showed his confidence in him to the
last. Carleton's was the only name mentioned twice in the will which
Wolfe handed over to Jervis, the future Lord St Vincent, the night
before the battle. 'I leave to Colonel Oughton, Colonel Carleton,
Colonel Howe, and Colonel Warde a thousand pounds each.' 'All my
books and papers, both here and in England, I leave to Colonel
Carleton.' Wolfe's mother, who died five years later, showed the
same confidence by appointing Carleton her executor.

With the fall of Quebec in 1759 Carleton disappears from the
Canadian scene till 1766. But so many pregnant events happened in
Canada during these seven years, while so few happened in his own
career, that it is much more important for us to follow her history
than his biography.

In 1761 he was wounded at the storming of Port Andro during the
attack on Belle Isle off the west coast of France. In 1762 he was
wounded at Havana in the West Indies. After that he enjoyed four
years of quietness at home. Then came the exceedingly difficult task
of guiding Canada through twelve years of turbulent politics and
most subversive war.

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Chronicles of Canada, The
Father of British Canada, A Chronicle of Carleton, 1915